By Orin Davidson
Only in the West Indies would you find an `Old Boys Club’ being allowed to run a professional sports organisation into the ground.
Only in the West Indies do shame, humiliation and mediocrity, have no effect on the behaviour of cricket administrators.
And yes! Only in the West Indies would you have the leaders of a disgraceful cricket board returned to office unchallenged.
In some parts of the world, an explosion of emotional outrage would’ve been on display with the full gamut, ranging from protests in the streets to the burning of effigies and, or homes, at the re-election of Dr. Julian Hunte and Dave Cameron as president and vice-president respectively of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
Yet, quietly over the weekend, the WICB not only re-elected these two officials again, they were brought back unopposed despite the shame, disgust and maladministration the WICB has wrought on the West Indian public more so, in the last year.
These two officials and their supporters have taken disdain for the people supporting West Indies cricket to unprecedented levels by not resigning after the President’s Office rent scandal in St Lucia, or following the millions of dollars lost by the WICB from the Digicel/Stanford sponsorship row, or even after the Antigua Test match abandonment.
Nerve to run again
Instead, Dr. Hunte and Cameron had the nerve to run again for relection for another two long years.
It is the type of nerve that had to be as strong as the steel the Guyana Government used to build the recently-concluded Berbice River bridge.
Moreover, fans have to put up with the ringleaders of a board that is yet to address a claim made by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), that it blundered away many more millions of dollars on several breach of contract acts involving business associates, apart from the Digicel/Stanford fiasco.
It is said that where smoke exists there is fire and when you consider that the WIPA president was once a WICB director and exposed to its inner operations, you can understand why the WICB is ducking the issue.
It brought scathing criticism from ex-player and renowned television analyst Michael Holding and to a lesser extent ex-captain Clive Lloyd, yet the public display of disgust by the two personalities made no difference.
And what about the other territorial board representatives and directors who elected Dr. Hunte and Cameron?
They are telling the West Indian public loud and clear that no amount of mediocrity would be enough for them to elicit change, even if the WICB has never been as inept as it is, under the watch of the current administration.
Whichever way you examine the problems, this new development is as disgraceful as any act in sports, fit only for the Guinness Book of Records.
It seems only a hurricane associated with this time of the year in the islands, with enough strength to sweep the WICB’s Antigua head office into the Caribbean Sea, would remove these incompetents from office.
That is, except the WICB representatives from Trinidad and Tobago. Now, you can understand why the Trinidad board has the best managed system of all the territories.
They stand for efficiency and professionalism.
Boycott
So, Deryck Murray and company decided they had had enough of the nonsense that West Indies cricket has become. They boycotted the meeting that re-elected Dr. Hunte and Cameron, and you have to take your hats off to them.
Murray said among others things the Trinidad board wants a new WICB structure from which the sport is to be administered.
And who can blame them? Such calls have been made incessantly in this space over time.
The decision-making process, for one thing, for cricket issues is too drawn out and cumbersome.
Too many officials have to be involved. Nowhere in the world of professional sports administration would you find 18-20 people having to decide on tasks like naming a captain, coach or a panel of selectors.
This stellar act by the TTCB should by no means be interpreted as a hint of its separation from West Indies cricket.
Murray is not Forbes Persaud, the official who has been clamouring for such a move.
Murray stated his board’s position clearly – the boycott was all about showing resentment at the way West Indies cricket is being managed.
And you can appreciate why he has taken this stand.
He is a former player who was part of the West Indies Dream Team which ruled the world for 15 years.
The former wicketkeeper/batsman knows what efficient management is all about on and off the field. Apart from being an outstanding player, he was exposed to a high level in academia and also worked in a governmental diplomatic environment.
So, the question now is where does the TTCB go from here? Will they continue to boycott WICB meetings? For one thing it would be laudable if they can wring some support from the other five territories to pressure the WICB to change.
And the long suffering fans can play their part too by letting their territorial boards feel their resentment through picketing exercises at board offices and via letters of protests.
Only then would these officials understand that West Indies cricket has no place for any `Old Boys Club’.
